PayPal Study Reveals Adults Globally Owed More Than $51 Billion by Friends and Family

People in the U.S., Canada, Germany and Australia Are Owed $450 on
Average

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today PayPal released a new PayPal
Money Habits Study that sheds new light on people’s attitudes and
behaviors around money. In a survey of 4,000 consumers in the U.S.,
Canada, Germany and Australia, the study found that one third of adults
in the U.S. have ruined a relationship over IOUs and are owed on average
$450. A driving reason is discomfort around financial conversations;
more than 50 percent of Americans find it awkward to ask their friends
or family to pay them back.

The survey also found digital wallets continue to gain popularity with
one third of respondents preferring a digital wallet to a real one. Most
people dislike dealing with checks (74 percent), and while cash is still
king, mobile payments are on the rise with peer-to-peer (P2P) payments
increasingly popular for IOUs.

“As we see money going digital and mobile, people need more flexible
ways to manage their money. It’s simple – we all want no-fuss ways to
pay and get paid back, and avoid awkward IOU conversations,” said Matt
Gromada, Director of Consumer Product Marketing at PayPal. “PayPal
pioneered sending money digitally 16 years ago, and we are continuing to
lead the way with our P2P offerings.”

Why don’t people ask for their money back? Awkward!!

Bottom line – money is an uncomfortable subject and it takes a lot of
time to chase down debts. More than half of people surveyed across the
four countries find it awkward to ask their friends or family members to
pay them back, and nearly 55 percent on average admitted they felt
embarrassed asking friends to spot them cash.

“People are more willing to discuss their sex lives than their
finances,” says Dr. Ryan Howell, Associate Professor of Psychology at
San Francisco State University and an expert on the psychology of
spending. “Money is still considered an incredibly private, personal
topic for many people due to deep-seated cross-cultural stigmas around
money.”

Not only do most people feel anxiety bringing up IOUs, nearly 50 percent
of people across the four countries never get paid back because they are
too uncomfortable bringing up the subject. But letting these debts go
can have real fiscal and social consequences.

Are a few small debts really a big deal? Actually, yes.

Small, unpaid debts between friends may seem easy to forgive when hoping
to avoid awkward conversations, but they can leave a sizable hole in
consumers’ wallets. According to PayPal’s study, adults are owed an
average of nearly $450 – a global total of $51 billion.

That’s a pretty steep financial cost, but the greater one comes to
people’s health and happiness – one-third of people have lost a friend
or ruined a family relationship over debt. Dr. Howell explains that
social connections are not just a nice-to-have, they are a must-have for
our emotional well-being.

Digital P2P Payments are Poised for a Takeover

PayPal just announced a way to name your money with PayPal.Me – a free,
simple, and personal way for people to request money from anyone across
the globe. PayPal.Me is a personal link (for example, John Smith’s link
could be paypal.me/JohnSmith) and can be sent to groups of friends,
family and colleagues for a quick, hassle-free way to pay someone back
quickly. It’s an instant, safe, unique link that works on any device no
matter where it’s used – in a text, email, instant messenger, social
media post, blog, or on the web. Anyone who receives it has a fast and
easy way to pay an IOU quickly.

With P2P payments providing the option to avoid wasting time to chase
down debts or deal with the friendships going sour over money, the vast
majority of people around the world are looking forward to foregoing
having to rustle up cash or pull out a checkbook when it comes time to
split a bill or go in on a present together in the near future.

About the Study

PayPal commissioned a global study with Koski Research to uncover
people’s attitudes and behaviors about money and digital payment
options. Between May 14, 2015 and June 25, 2015, over 4,000 participants
from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Australia participated in the
14-minute online study. Additionally, a five-minute online study was
conducted by Koski Research between June 22 and June 28, 2015 to over
4,000 participants from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Australia.

About Koski Research

Koski Research specializes in custom research solutions that answer the
most complex business questions of Fortune 1000 companies. Answers to
these questions result in national media coverage, drive business growth
and prepare clients for the future. As the creator of the Engagement IQ,
a proprietary measurement system that assesses the public’s sentiment of
a company based on key social behaviors, Koski Research excels in
leveraging research to drive customer engagement.

About PayPal

At PayPal (Nasdaq:PYPL), we put people at the center of everything we
do. Founded in 1998, we continue to be at the forefront of the digital
payments revolution, last year we processed 4 billion payments, of which
1 billion were made on mobile devices. PayPal gives people better ways
to connect to their money and to each other, helping them safely access
and move their money and offering a choice of how they would like to pay
or be paid. With our 169 million active customer accounts, we have
created an open and secure payments ecosystem that people and businesses
choose to securely transact with each other online, in stores and on
mobile devices.

PayPal is a truly global payments platform that is available to people
in 203
markets, allowing customers to get paid in more than 100 currencies,
withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 57 currencies and hold balances
in their PayPal accounts in 26 currencies. For more information on
PayPal, visit about.paypal-corp.com.
For PYPL financial information visit investor.paypal-corp.com.